Slowing Food Stamp Participation
Off the Charts points out how the recovery has helped to slow the growth in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program caseload.
Around The Dial – March 26, 2012
Economic policy reports, blog postings, and media stories of interest:
- Beat the Press advises to ignore monthly changes in housing data.
- The National Skills Coalition analyzes a House WIA re-authorization proposal.
- TaxVox studies Rep. Paul Ryan’s latest budget proposal.
- Rortybomb summarizes three kinds of rents.
- Heidi Shierholz breaks down labor force participation trends.
Health Reform At Work
Policy Shop points out that the federal healthcare reform helped 2.5 million young adults receive coverage at a minimal cost. That said, some 30 percent of young adults still lack coverage.
A Case For “Fair Trade”
Writing for Project Syndicate, Robert Skidelsky mulls the economics of the “fair trade” movement.
But, despite its shaky economics, the fair-trade movement should not be despised. While cynics say that its only achievement is to make consumers feel better about their purchases – rather like buying indulgences in the old Catholic Church – this is to sell fair trade short. In fact, the movement represents a spark of protest against mindless consumerism, grass-roots resistance against an impersonal logic, and an expression of communal activism.
…
That justification will not convince economists, who prefer a dryer sort of reasoning. But it is not out of place to remind ourselves that economists and bureaucrats need not always have things their own way.
Around The Dial – March 23, 2012
Economic policy reports, blog postings, and media stories of interest:
- Tapped notes that for home health workers “hard work doesn’t pay.”
- Paul Krugman sees a new version of the paranoid style in American politics.
- The Atlantic notes the technological appeal of the boom box.
- The Washington Post reports on the number of “green jobs” in the US.
- Jared Bernstein explains why the economy doesn’t feel like its improving.
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